Theme of The Day: The Poetry of Beginning Again
Monday is a blank canvas soaked in coffee and doubt.
The alarm shatters your dream. The world demands you vertical before you’re ready. Your feet hit cold floor and you’re already negotiating with the day before it’s even started.
But there’s something almost sacred about this. This weekly resurrection. This chance to rewrite the script. This moment when nothing has gone wrong yet because nothing has happened yet.
You get to author today. Not perfectly. Not without constraint. But more than you think.
Most of us sleepwalk through Mondays, treating them like obstacles to get over or enemies to defeat. We armor up. We brace for impact. We approach the first day of the week like soldiers approaching battle rather than artists approaching canvas.
What if Monday is actually a gift wrapped in mundane paper?
What if the ordinary is where the extraordinary hides, waiting for someone to pay attention?
Today’s theme isn’t about grinding harder or pushing through or conquering your week. It’s about noticing. Creating. Finding the sacred in the scrambled eggs and the morning commute. Discovering that God shows up in the margins we usually ignore.
Because Monday isn’t just the day after Sunday. It’s the day you get to participate in creation again. Small creation, yes. But creation nonetheless.
Paint something beautiful today. Even if it’s just how you love one person or do one thing with full presence.
Bible Verses Of The Day: Morning Study
“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Psalm 118:24 New International Version (NIV)
Meaning of Psalm 118:24 and How to Apply It
The psalmist didn’t write this on vacation. Didn’t pen it during retreat. Didn’t compose it for special occasions only.
This is for today. This Monday. This ordinary, unremarkable, slightly-dreading-it Monday.
The Hebrew “asah” means fashioned with intention. God made this day on purpose. He crafted Monday, November 10, 2025 with you in mind. Not accidentally. Not reluctantly. Intentionally.
“Rejoice” comes from “giyl,” which means to spin around with joy. It’s movement. It’s action. It’s choosing celebration over complaint.
“Be glad in it” uses “samach.” Not about it. In it. Inside this actual Monday with its emails and deadlines and difficult people. Gladness lives here, in this, not in some future fantasy where Mondays don’t exist.
You woke up resenting Monday before it even had a chance. Treating it like punishment instead of gift. Approaching it with dread instead of wonder.
The psalmist is inviting you into a completely different posture. One where you receive Monday as something made for you rather than inflicted on you.
This doesn’t mean toxic positivity that ignores real challenges. It means finding the sacred embedded in the ordinary. Noticing that you’re alive. That you get another chance. That the canvas is blank and you get to contribute something to the world today.
Apply this by starting Monday with one moment of deliberate noticing.
Before you check your phone. Before you mentally rehearse everything difficult ahead. Before you slip into autopilot and miss the day entirely.
Notice something. Anything.
The specific quality of morning light in your room. The weight of your coffee cup in your hand. The sensation of breath entering and leaving your body. The fact that you’re alive on this planet on this Monday that will never exist again.
Say out loud: “God made this day. He made it for me. I’m choosing gladness in it, not despite it.”
Then carry that noticing through your morning. What if you approached your commute like a poet instead of a prisoner? What if you saw your workplace as mission field instead of minefield? What if you treated ordinary conversations like sacred encounters?
You’re painting today whether you realize it or not. Every choice is a brushstroke. Every word is color on canvas. Every action contributes to the art you’re creating called your life.
Make it beautiful. Not perfectly. Just intentionally.
Bible Verses Of The Day: Afternoon Study
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”
Colossians 3:23 New International Version (NIV)
Meaning of Colossians 3:23 and How to Apply It
Paul’s writing to slaves. People with zero choice about their Monday. Zero control over their work. Zero power to quit when things got hard.
And he tells them to work with “all your heart.” The Greek “ek psyches” means from your soul. From your deepest self. Not just surface effort. Full presence.
“As working for the Lord” flips everything. Your actual boss doesn’t determine the quality of your work. The Lord does. You’re not performing for human approval. You’re creating for an audience of One.
This transforms the mundane. That email you’re writing? For the Lord. That meeting you’re leading? For the Lord. That menial task nobody notices? For the Lord.
Nothing is too small to be sacred when you’re working for Him. Nothing is too ordinary to be worship when He’s watching.
By Monday afternoon, the shine of morning has probably worn off. You’re in the weeds now. The difficult parts. The boring parts. The parts that make you wonder why you thought today could be different.
Paul’s saying your afternoon doesn’t have to be survival mode. It can be worship mode. If you shift your audience.
You’re not working for the boss who doesn’t appreciate you. You’re working for the Lord who sees every effort. You’re not performing for the coworker who criticizes everything. You’re creating for the God who delights in your faithfulness.
This doesn’t make work easy. It makes work meaningful. Big difference.
Apply this by reframing one specific task you’re doing this afternoon.
That thing you’re dreading. That responsibility that feels pointless. That work nobody will notice or appreciate. That mundane requirement that makes you question your life choices.
Before you do it, say this: “I’m doing this for the Lord. Not for approval. Not for recognition. Not even because it matters to anyone else. Because it matters to Him when I bring my full heart to what He’s given me to do.”
Then do it with all your heart. Not perfectly. Not without frustration. But with full presence instead of resentful autopilot.
Watch what happens when you bring your whole self to something instead of just going through the motions. The task doesn’t change. Your experience of it does.
You’re painting this afternoon. The strokes might look boring to others. But God sees a masterpiece being created in your faithfulness to small things.
Work like an artist. Even the tedious parts. Especially the tedious parts. Because the Master is watching, and He cares about how you handle the ordinary.
Bible Verses Of The Day: Evening Study
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:22-23 English Standard Version (ESV)
Meaning of Lamentations 3:22-23 and How to Apply It
Jeremiah wrote this sitting in ruins. Everything destroyed. Everything lost. Yet he pens poetry about God’s steadfast love and new mercies.
The Hebrew “chesed” for steadfast love means loyal covenant love. It doesn’t fluctuate with your performance. It doesn’t depend on your Monday going well. It remains steady through everything.
“New every morning” uses “chadash.” Fresh. Not recycled. Not diminished by yesterday’s failures. Brand new mercy for today’s mess.
Monday exhausted you. It challenged you. It revealed your limits and exposed your weaknesses. You didn’t handle everything perfectly. You lost patience. You cut corners. You chose easy over excellent in moments nobody saw.
Jeremiah’s declaring that tomorrow morning, mercy shows up fresh. Today’s failures don’t deplete tomorrow’s grace. Monday’s struggles don’t reduce Tuesday’s steadfast love.
This is the rhythm of the kingdom. Fall. Rise. Fall. Rise. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy. New every single morning without exception or condition.
Monday evening is when you tally the day. What you accomplished. What you failed at. Whether you measured up to your own expectations, which are usually unrealistic anyway.
The prophet sitting in literal ruins is telling you something crucial: God’s love doesn’t depend on your Monday metrics. His faithfulness isn’t determined by yours.
You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to keep showing up. Keep trying. Keep painting even when the strokes look messy. Keep creating even when the canvas doesn’t match your vision.
Tomorrow morning, mercy arrives fresh. That’s the promise. Not that you’ll do better. Not that Monday will be easier next time. But that grace keeps showing up, reliable as sunrise.
Apply this tonight by releasing your grip on Monday’s failures.
Write them down if it helps. All the ways you fell short today. All the moments you wish you could redo. All the places you didn’t quite measure up.
Then speak Lamentations 3:22-23 over them: “God’s steadfast love never ceases. His mercies are new tomorrow morning. Great is His faithfulness, even when mine wobbles.”
Let that sink in. You get another chance. Another blank canvas. Another opportunity to create something beautiful, even if imperfect.
Monday is done. You survived it. You participated in creation today, however imperfectly. You painted something on the canvas of November 10, 2025 that will never exist again.
Maybe it’s a masterpiece. Maybe it’s a mess. Probably it’s both. That’s okay. That’s human. That’s the art of living.
Rest tonight knowing tomorrow brings fresh mercy. Sleep knowing God’s love doesn’t require your perfection. Close your eyes trusting that Tuesday’s canvas waits, blank and ready for your imperfect brushstrokes again.
You’re an artist, not a machine. Artists create. They also fail. They try again. They paint through the mess. They find beauty in unexpected places.
That’s what you did today. That’s what you’ll do tomorrow. That’s the poetry of beginning again, over and over, held by steadfast love that never ceases.
Say This Prayer
God, thank You for making Monday. I confess I usually treat it like punishment instead of gift. I approach it with dread instead of wonder. I miss the sacred embedded in the ordinary because I’m not paying attention.
Teach me to notice. To see this day as blank canvas instead of obstacle course. To approach my work as worship instead of burden. To find You in the margins I usually ignore.
Thank You that nothing is too small to be sacred when I’m working for You. Thank You that my Monday matters not because it’s impressive but because You’re watching. Help me bring my whole heart to ordinary things because they’re not ordinary to You.
Forgive me for today’s failures. For the moments I missed. For the times I chose easy over excellent. For the ways I fell short of my own expectations and probably Yours.
Thank You that Your mercies are new tomorrow morning. Thank You that Your steadfast love doesn’t depend on my Monday metrics. Thank You for the poetry of beginning again, held by grace that never runs out.
Help me sleep tonight knowing I get another chance. Another canvas. Another opportunity to create something beautiful in the ordinariness of Tuesday. You’re teaching me that the mundane is where the extraordinary hides. I’m learning to see it. Slowly. Imperfectly. But I’m learning.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Evang. Anabelle Thompson is the founder of Believers Refuge, a Scripture-based resource that helps Christians to find biblical guidance for life’s challenges.
With over 15 years of ministry experience and a decade of dedicated Bible study, she creates content that connects believers with relevant Scripture for their daily struggles.
Her work has reached over 76,000 monthly readers (which is projected to reach 100,000 readers by the end of 2025) seeking practical faith applications, biblical encouragement, and spiritual guidance rooted in God’s Word.
She writes from personal experience, having walked through seasons of waiting, breakthrough, and spiritual growth that inform her teaching.
Evang. Thompson brings 12 years of active ministry and evangelism experience, along with over 10 years of systematic Bible study and theological research.
As a former small group leader and Sunday school teacher, she has published over 200 biblical resources and devotional studies.
She specializes in applying Scripture to everyday life challenges and regularly studies the original Hebrew and Greek texts for a deeper biblical understanding.